This invention relates generally to kitchen utensil holders, and more particularly to a novel multi-tiered holder which is collapsible for convenient packaging, shipping, storage and merchandising.
There are many items of utilitarian nature which are lightweight and relatively inexpensive to make but which are so large and bulky that they cannot be effectively and economically shipped and merchandised. Thus, the size and bulk of many items are often such that the cost of the packaging for the items exceeds their value to the customer and/or the cost of shipping them is economically prohibitive due to the large space they occupy. Furthermore, many such items when packaged and sent out for retail sales, occupy so much costly shelf or counter space that retail merchants cannot afford to stock or handle them.
It is a well recognized principal in the merchandising field that most utilitarian items, and particularly relatively inexpensive kitchen utensils, are marketable within a rather narrow price range, and that the prices which can be obtained for them must obviously include the costs for packaging, shipping and handling, as well as the cost of manufacturing. If the foregoing non-manufacturing costs are excessive, such items might not be salable because the customers will purchase a less expensive item which will perform substantially the same function.
In past years, tool and utensil holders which have been available have been unnecessarily cumbersome and relatively unattractive. Representative patents showing such holders include Pat. No. 226,645, Pat. No. 3,227,283 and Pat. No. 3,489,289.
In recent years, manufacturers have sought to commercially exploit kitchen utensil holders which are injection molded plastic items, and which are light in weight, aesthetically attractive and functionally convenient to use. While such plastic utensil holders are relatively inexpensive to make, the cost of packaging and shipping some of them has proven to be excessive and to so reduce profits that their commercial success has been marginal, at least. The above, coupled with the fact that the large packaged items require the use of excessive, costly shelf space for retail exploitation thereof, has made them items which most retailers are extremely reluctant to handle. Representative of this last-mentioned group is the utensil storage device which is the subject matter of Pat. No. 4,305,511.
With the foregoing limitations and deficiencies of known devices in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel, inexpensive, multi-tiered kitchen utensil holder which is sectional and constructed in such a manner that the sections can be disengaged and positioned one within the other, to greatly reduce the size of the holder when it is not in use, whereby the cost of packaging, storing, shipping and handling to effect commercial exploitations thereof is materially reduced.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel, multi-tiered kitchen utensil holder comprising two or more axially aligned telescopically engaged sections with utensil receiving and holding means formed therein, which sections are engageable and disengageable between operative and collapsed positions, whereby the cubic volume metric space effectively occupied by the holder when it is in the collapsed or stored position is less than one-half the cubic volume metric space occupied by the holder when it is in the extended or fully assembled position.
Yet another object is to provide a novel kitchen utensil holder which can be used in the form of a single-tier, two-tiered, or three-tiered holder.
An additional object is to provide such a multi-tiered holder which can be easily and quickly changed between a stored or collapsed position and any one of a single-tiered, two-tiered or three-tiered operative or fully assembled position.
Another object is to provide a utensil holder of the type described, which includes easily operable and durable mean to effectively couple the sections or tiers together and to establish a strong utilitarian assembly.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent and fully understood from the following detailed description of one typical preferred embodiment of the invention, throughout which description reference is made to the accompanying drawings.